Justice by robot: AI ‘judge’ predicts courtroom verdicts with 79pc accuracy

LONDON: Courtrooms could soon be welcoming robots to trials, after computer scientists managed to develop an artificially intelligent (AI) ‘judge’ capable of predicting verdicts with 79 percent accuracy.

The AI computer created by computer scientists at the University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield used an algorithm to analyse the texts of 584 European Court of Human Rights cases dealing with issues ranging from torture and degradation, to fair trials and privacy.

After scanning the transcripts, the computer was able to learn which specific phrases, facts, and circumstances occurred most frequently when there had been a violation of the Human Rights Act.

Using the information it had gathered, the computer came up with its own verdict for each case – and that verdict lined up with those made by Europe’s most senior judges 79 percent of the time.

While the researchers don’t expect their creation to take charge of important trials anytime soon, they do believe it could assist human judges.